Living between hell and high water

After much deliberation I’ve concluded that my title is not in bad taste – its there to illustrate the bitter irony of living in a country where half is inundated with water and the other half is dying for it.

Word’s cannot describe, nor can the mind fathom the absolute horror and wretched despair one feels when you look at the sunset now, or switch on the tv. I took a train through Victoria just over a month ago, and I was shocked then just how tinder dry it was, and I prayed that nothing bad would happen. I guess mother nature has her own way of dealing out mayhem.

Considering I can’t spare a dollar at the moment to give to charity, and they really don’t want clothing, I’ve done the only thing I can – joined Packages down Under (Rav Link), pulled out my stash and started knitting squares. The Magpie sat down and cast on his own. My first is a proxy square for the best friend of my mother’s “New Zealand” grandmother – the little old lady who adopted mom when we moved there – the friend lost her daughter and both her grandchildren in Kinglake. There’s been quite a lot of upset back home – there are dozens of children and grandchildren of community members that have moved to Victoria and been affected. As mom works in hospice, the people its hitting hard there are those too old and frail to do anything, and are now feeling very, very lonely. Its times like these that the two countries seem so close together and at the same time so very far apart. And the horror on both sides of the Tasman is palpable. What can you do? What can you say? Tell those who are close to you how much you love them, find even that last 5 cent piece in your wallet and donate it.

Knitabulous‘ photos and message sum it up well. Register to give blood or plasma, donate anything – the Kuka (who I knew was Victorian, but not from Gippsland) – is a veritable go-to for information of how to get aid in there. And for all the poor animals that have been burnt, orphaned or injured Wildlife Victoria is also desperate for donations – it lost two of its shelters in the fires, and are still trying to ascertain if any damage has been done to others.

There isn’t that much more that can be said, is there? Just pray to whatever power is out there, and help in any way you can. Now, I’ve got 800 more words for the day, and some squares to go knit.

I wish the government would just think about pipelines to get water down to the drought afflicted states. The North east is going to remain in a constant state of over-saturation and the south east in an almost permanent state of aridity. They do it with gas all the time. Whoever said “it isn’t viable” should think very long and very hard about that statement again. But you know what they say about if wishes were horses…